Season 2 Episode 10
__TOC__ Reunion (Released December 9, 2008) Yuuko (age 16) sits in a pew in the empty church while weaving a long scarf as a Christmas present for Yuu. A strange little girl approaches, then runs out before Yuuko can speak to her. Meanwhile, Yuu has returned back to Otobane Academy and is practicing painting portraits in the art room using plaster busts as his subjects. Nagi walks in and gives him frank advice on how to improve his (poor) portrait technique, and cautions him that if doesn't he improve she'll force him to sketch her nude. In the evening, Yuu eats a pleasant home-cooked dinner with Yuuko. He brags that he was offered a job position at the store after he graduates. He explains that in his life he is not looking 'up', but rather 'forward'. The couple are happy as they move forward in their new life together. Miki One day inside the empty church, Yuuko and Yuu discover a little girl hiding behind the altar. Her name is Miki (later Mizuki Hayama). Yuuko tells Yuu that Miki was placed in the orphanage six months earlier after her mother committed suicide and tried to drown Miki with her. She says that Miki now trusts no one and is avoiding all human contact, and so no one will adopt her. Yuuko depressingly wonders aloud if Yuu is correct that that there is no God, for otherwise why would such bad things happen. She tells Yuu, "If there was a God, I'd want Him to make this world a more beautiful place, where all the suffering would disappear." Yuu ponders if such a world could ever be possible. Back at school, Nagi is impressed with Yuu's most recent artwork, as his technique has suddenly improved. She asks him, "Wow, did something happen?" Yuu ignores her question and asks her what she sees different in his artwork. She answers cryptically, "The doubt is gone." A Family Unit At the church, Yuuko is seen praying. Miki then reappears. Yuuko gently draws the traumatized little girl out of her shell. She and Miki become friends. Yuu arrives and finds Miki sound asleep in Yuuko's lap and he smiles. Miki then wakes and says she had a scary dream. Yuuko quietly reassures her and calms her. Yuuko arranges to meet with Miki in the empty church every day, and she becomes like a mother to her. She teaches Miki how to humm her favorite song, A Moon Filled Sky. Yuuko tells Miki it is her favorite melody. She then tells Miki that she has invented her own lyrics for the song (the song has none) and teaches them to Miki: With the courage to live The future I will embrace Your faith has given me all of the strength To again believe in love Yuuko explains that this as far as she has gotten with inventing the lyrics, and that the song is unfinished. (Mizuki later sings the full song with the complete lyrics in ''Melodies'' episode 12.) Even though Yuuko and Yuu are themselves still technically minors, they take it upon themselves to become Miki's ersatz parents. They become a family unit. While walking down the street together with Miki in tow, Yuu reveals to Yuuko that he has a dream of one day seeing Otowa become a happy town with a bright future, not a sad town with a bleak past. Christmas Yuuko tells Yuu that she wants to celebrate Christmas with him, but he explains he has to work that day. They agree to meet at the church and exchange presents there after Yuu gets off work. On the way to the church, Yuu buys a bouquet of flowers for Yuuko and runs into Nagi, who delays him. Miki walks down the street to join up with Yuu, but she is distracted by a violin playing A Moon Filled Sky. She tracks down the source of the music and meets the young Kuze sitting on a park bench with his violin. Kuze gives the little girl a blue ribbon as a Christmas gift, and he ties it into her hair in a side ponytail. (Mizuki saves the ribbon and wears it the same way when she meets Kuze again 12 years later.) Yuuko's Death While waiting in front of the church for Yuu to arrive with Miki, Yuuko finds a ball that reminds her of her childhood with Yuu. As she attempts to pick up the ball in the street, a car approaches at high speed, runs her over, and drives off. As Yuu and Nagi approach the church with little Miki in tow, several golden shafts of sunlight peek out through the clouds. Miki points them out to Nagi, who calls them angel stairs. She explains that angels can travel up and down between Heaven and Earth on these shafts of light. (This is beautifully depicted in the demo trailer for the second visual novel, ef - the latter tale, which shows the angel Yuuko descending the angel stairs as Mizuki runs towards the golden shafts of light.) Yuuko drags her broken body up to one of the trees and leans against it. She quietly sings her invented lyrics for the song A Moon Filled Sky as she bleeds out. As she takes her last breath, she wishes to meet Yuu again. Later, Yuu and Miki arrive to find Yuuko's dead body propped up against the tree. Yuu rushes to Yuuko, desperately trying to wake her up. He then lifts up her dead body and carries her away with Miki crying at his side, while the end credits roll to the melody of Ebullient Future. After the End Credits Yuu stands alone on the school rooftop under a gray sky. A Really Dead Montage of Yuuko is shown in sepia colors. In a previously unseen flashback, Yuuko is shown handing the secret rooftop key to Yuu, saying that now that she is happy she no longer needs it, and to pass the key along to the next person who does. Trivia A musical montage of Yuuko's life and death are depicted in a beautiful YouTube AMV: I'll never forget you... Yuko. The AMV is set to the song Remembering You, sung by Steven Curtis Chapman. Previous Episode | Next Episode Category:Episodes Category:Season 2